Folks sorry for the late post.. there’s no internet up here in the mountains.. I’m going to post this from an internet cafe when I find one..

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It’s about midnight and we’re at the Tall Trees resort somewhere near Munnar Kerala near the peaks of the western Ghatts. We’re in a  private cottage deep in a cloud forest. It’s a surreal and stunningly beautiful place. Unlike anywhere else I’ve ever seen. Everything is shrouded in mists and it’s amazingly lush. Our cottage is in the middle of a grove of cardamom plants. The Air smells like spices. We’ve had an amazing day.. We started  in Cochin this morning at about 10 then made the 120 KM drive in about  5 hours.. The roads are narrow, , full of holes and spectacularly beautiful most of the time. They’re also packed with people cars, busses, trucks, motorcycles, rickshaws, cows, goats, dogs, oxen and even monkeys..   In the interest of time  I’m going to try and tell the story of the day from the pictures.. rather than doing a bunch of text. I’ll need to go down the hill to find some internet connection sometime later tonight so I need to keep it relatively brief.. So here goes..

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We began the day at the wonderful Old Harbor Inn in Cochin. It was a wonderful oasis in pretty but rough and tumble Fort Cochin.    We grabbed a quick breakfast downstairs in the small dining area. The place was filled with fresh flowers .

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These guys came buy on a motorcycle. They were dressed warmly because it was relatively cool this morning.. by that I mean it was barely  80 degrees J .

After breakfast we went upstairs, woke Gabe and packed up. It was hard leaving the room.. it was so nice

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Our last act before leaving was to place a SamStone out near the pond in the hotel’s courtyard. We’d been thinking and talking a lot about Sam the last few days.. we feel him here.. and miss him here so deeply.

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We found Manooj and said goodbye to the folks in the hotel and took off…

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First stop was the Church of St/ Francis that dates back to 1505 !.. It was founded by early Portugese settlers. The explorere Vaso de Gama ded and was buried here for 14 years until his son came and fetched back his remains. IThere was a mass going on in Malyalam the local language (and also a palindrome !).. It was cool to here..

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We had just left the church when Manooj’s phone rang.. it was for me !.. The guys in the hotel had found my Blackberry !.. I’m such a space cadet. Luckily we were just around the corner.. I ran back in and picked it up.. and gave them some maple syrup for saving me .

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Next stop was the Old Synagogue in Jew Town again.. it was open today.. so I wanted to take a peek. I managed to take one picture inside.. It was very cool.. The building dated from the 16^th century. It had beautiful Dutch floor tiles and great colored glass everywhere. They had the ‘Shema’ cut in Hebrew in the wall tiles. It was cool seeing that

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We then hiked out through Jewtown as folks tried to lure us into their stores. There is some funky stuff for sale there .

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From there we headed out of town.. I took a picture of the old bridge as we crossed back from Fort Cochin island into Erakulum . I think it was built by my friend Vasant’s dad back in the 40’s . I’ll show him when I get back to the states.

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We made a brif stop at the trvel agent inorder to pay the balance of our bill then headed out on the road to Munnar

Every second of the ride up to the mountains was amazing.. I can’t begin to describe the sights.. We passed through soem pretty rough cities, small towns, beautiful jungles and everything in between . Here’s some of the stuff we saw.. Here’s a famous Hindu temple

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II loved looking at all the political signs.. These candidates are endorsed by Jesus evidently.

We saw lots of animals.. mostly cows, goats and dogs in the road.. but also some Water buffalo.. like this guy

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Manooj took us to an Elephan training facility on the way up.. The place trains elephants for work in the forest. They had quite a few of the big guys there..

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The place was also crawling with huge millipedes !

These guys are BIG !

The place also had a little zoo attached.. Lots of animals in small cages.. Kinda  sad.. but the animals were cute.

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This little guy could climb in and out of his cage as he wished.. He kept begging for food.

Manooj told us that this guy grabbed one of his former clients cell phones the other day and smashed it on the ground and jumped on it !

We are trying to sample some of the things that are different here.. ‘Mint Mischief’ potato chips for example… how were they. ? . uh… don’t ask

We passed through so many agricultural areas and saw some exotic crops.> here are pineapples.

Here’s a rubber plantation

This is a rice field.

This is tapioca growing.

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At one point we stopped for a great Indian lunch.. Diane had Alo Gobi, I had a chili cauliflower curry. Gabe had a chicken sandwich and Manooj had spicy fish curry. It was great. We all sat and watched the never ending India/Australia cricket match on TV as we ate. The whole  country is at a standstill while this match is being played.. It’s on everyone’s TV. I wish I understood the rules.. It’s certainly hard to follow if you don’t know what’s going on .

The restaurant had a small patch of Vanilla growing. They actually cook with the pods. It’s delicious.

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We took this for Chai-baby.. Who’s 4^th birthday was yesterday. Happy Birthday Dear Doggy !  It’s also our friend Will’s birthday. Happy birthday Will !

The scenery from that point started gtting more mountainous.. and the temperature started dropping as we went up.

At one point we were surprised and happy to see some monkeys on the side of the road. We gave them a bit of food.. They seemed pretty happy about that. They were cute and fun to watch

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We stopped at several amazing waterfalls along the road. Natural beauty was everywhere.

Unfortunately .. trash was everywhere too. They haven’t quite figured out not littering and recycling.

We kept seeing these Tata Motors Ambassadors on the road.. they are the national car of India.. Evidently they last forever !

All the way up we sw Christian churches, Hindu temples and Islamic mosques.. the communities seemed to be very well mixed together.

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As we got near Munnar,  we started to see tea plantations. The steep hills were covered with terraced rows of tea.. Tomorrow we’re going to visit one of the plantations.

We eventually turned off on a very narrow bridge over a gorge to get to the hotel

We stopped at a small tea stand and got some cardamom tea.. it was delicious. As we stopped we had a bunch of people come over and talk to us.. they all wanted to take our picture and get our pictures with them> Folks here are SOOOO friendly.. Several of them  asked about my Sam button. They were sad to hear about his passing.. they wanted to hear more about him. It was really touching.  As we left, Diane pointed out that the same level of friendliness from strangers  in the US might  have been cause for suspicion.  Not here.. Everyone we’ve met here has been truly warm and interested in strangers.  It made us think for a while about ow jaded we’d become.

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It was only a few Km from teh tea shop to our hotel.. right before we got here we noticed a eiki master’s sign on the road. You’d have to see the road to know just how strange that woas. The road is barely a driveway.. rutted and winding.. with absolutely nothing on it..

As we turned into the Tall Trees hotel, Manooj pointed out the Cardamom plantation it abutted.

Tall Trees is really an indescribably place. It’s in a dens forest which has been full of misty clouds since we got here. It’s full of moss and plants I’v enever seen.. there are very cool and different brd and insect sounds. We hiked to our cottage. Here’s the view from our balcony and a view of the cottage itself

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After settling in we hiked up the top of the hill to the restaurant. Gabe found a little playground in the forest and goofed around on that

The temperature here is in the 60’s which is far different than  the high 80’s/low 90’s down by the coast.

The resturant didn’t open ‚till 7:30 so we goofed around.. took a walk and played ping pong..    Check out the cool moth we found ! 

We wondered down and found the genrators that keep the lights on here.

Then we hiked back to the  restaurant and had a truly fantastic dinner.  So..

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What a day.. OK.. gotta sign off here..   It’s after 1 and I want to send this tomorrow morning. So far this has been an amazing trip.. More tomorrow.

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Goodnight everyone.. Max we love you and miss you here.. goodnight Sam !

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What a great, great day.. Todays our first full day of vacation and it’s SO nice to get out of the city. We’re in Cochin now.. we spent the day bumming around the town with our new freind and driver Manooj. I have a ton of pictures would take me hours to insert in a narrative. I think tonight I’m going to do the reverse and post all of the pictures and comment around them. It might not be the best storytelling.. but it may give you a feel for what we’re seeing here.. and it will save me some time.

Gabe just didn’t want to wake up this morning

so.. we read the paper.. it ad this pretty accurate description of fair Bangalore. The locals all complain.. but they love it anyway

Diane was reading the Times of India.. and look what she found ! (I think we’re in the Economic Times today as well)

We checked out of the Leena and headed to the Airport. We got a late start  but still managed ot get there and hour and fifteen minutes before our flight.Even so.. we barely made it because of the lonnnnnng lines

Nothing like an Uzi to keep folks nicely lined up

Our plane.. it wassn’t much but the food on our hour flight was the best I’d every had on a plane !

As we boarded they were pokeing around in the engine with a screw driver.. the guy closed the engine back up with his leatherman.. didn’t instill confidence 🙂

The flight was good and short.. Our driver, Manooj was standing there waiting for us wiht a our name on a card and a uge smile He’s goign to be great to travel with.

After a short rest at our really, really, really wonderful hotel (the Old Harbor in Fort Cochin) .. The folks at the hotel gave us fresh coconuts to drink from when we arrived.

Our room looks out over a little playground.. and beyond that is the sea

My little yogi !

Check it out.. even looks like me !

We grabed lunch at a place across the street.. Nothing special. but they had a pet eagle (!) who eyed us watchfully through our meal.. It was beautiful

We had vistitors during our meal..

We then walked back to the park.. two little cows had found a skany fountain to play in.. Notice one of them is really smiling !

This stature appears to be a mom teacheing her kid how to pee !

We finally got down to the water.. It wasn’t fit for swimming.. but there was other cool stuff to see.. like these trafitional chineese fishing nets.. they use them in ealry morning and late afternoon to haul out large numbers of fish

A goat on a boat !

Psr tof the old battlements

We then came back to the hotel.. Here’s our little courtyard

We took a swim in there wonderful pool. Gabe and I played a bunch of ‘marcoe’ ‘polo’,, I love doing that with him

Gabe wore his skany green shir and a local guy gave it tumbs up !

The guys in the hotel use rice flour to put these symbols in every (!) corner every morning !

Manooj took us to ‘Jew Town’ the old jeewish quarter of town.. The synagoge here dates from the mid 16th century.. There are only a few jewish famiuies left..Many left for Israedl a few decades back.  Still foks here  respect the history and maintain the synago and the shopping district around it.  There are tons of antique stores in Jew Town.. Great if you’re not carrying everything you own with you.

Here’s a hindu temple that doesn’t allow vistors

The old synaguoge tower

There’s an old cememtry nearby. The close proxmity of all these languages (English. Mayaman, and of Hebrew is pretty wierd and cool

The guy who erected this plance has basically the same last name as me..  ‘Cohen’or “Priest”.. here it is on the plague.. pretty cool

We wandered around Jewtown for a while taking in the sites

Wegot to the Synagoge.. but it was closed for shabbat..  No big deal.. the neighborhood was really what I wanted to see.

This is a Sanskrit luck symbol.. not a swastika.. but it was wierd to see it in Jewtown

The stores had soem amazing stuff.. liek this 30 foot boat

Yow !!!!

A local high school

We visited two  hindu temples with Manooj..

We met this cure little girl and her dad.. she was so sweet and so shy

Then we went to the beach.. to wath the sunset.. Many folks were there because it is a holiday here for Muslims.. it’s Id… the feats that ends Ramadan (Raamzan here).. Lots of folks were out in therie best clothes sitting on the beach watching the sunset. It was a sea of people.. not my kind of beach.. but the family scene was nice

 We then headed back to our hotel

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We said goodbye to Manooj for the night

Then Diane and I took a stroll through the celibrating crowds. Look how brightly everyone is dressed !

We met these kids who wanted us to take their picture. they loved looking at it on the camera.. It’s not a novely..Everone here has digital cameras..  I think we were the novelty.

We also met this sweet princess.

The crowds were all dressed so brightly

Many whole families travel by motor bike

We took a swim before dinner

Then ate a fantastic meal in the coartyard.. I had grilled panner (cottage cheese) it was ymmuy

As we ate we listed to a flute and tabla duo who was playing in the courtyard.. it was magical

Here’s our hotel at night

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After dinner we took one more pass through the park for fun

Namaste everyone.. Namaste Sam. talk to you from Munnar tomorrow !

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Today was our last full day in Bangalore.. and it was a full one. For some reason I found myself wide awake at 4:30 this morning. Diane went off to do yoga at 6 and I got  up and started to polish the  presentation for my talk this morning. Around 8 Diane and I went downstairs and grabbed a quick  breakfast and then I went and joined my conference. As always, I was quite nervous before my talk. I was happy to see my friend Subrahjit in the lobby. A familiar face always puts me at ease. Around 9 AM they ushered us in to the hall and started the program. I was the first one up. I gave  a 40 minute talk on technology trends.. I think it went pretty well. Based on how it felt and the comments I received afterwards. It’s much harder for me to ‘turn on’  now since Sam’s passing.  I’m always surprised when I start talking at it goes well…   I was really relieved when I finished because that was my last official act before vacation. I’m a free man for the next week. Yee-ha.    As free as  I felt, I was obliged to stick around  participate in the rest of the Conference.. I’m really glad that I did. It was really fascinating. The next talk was by Mike, The CEO of Cadence, the company hosting this conference. He had some really good insights on the direction our business is taking.. and what that meant to India.   That was followed by an excellent panel session which included 6 very senior industry leaders from India. They all had really good insights on the current state and future of India‘s microelectronics business.  What was so clear in all their talks was the great optimism for India‘s future.  The excitement is palpable India is going to innovate for it’s own needs then take that innovation to other emerging geographies. They have such great skills and motivation.. It’s going to be very exciting to watch.  After the panel I hung around and spoke to many of the conference participants.   I really enjoyed the whole program..

The script of the event

The elevator was out

Looking down the shaft

As soon as it ended, I went back to the room and found Gabe and Diane..  We were able to pry ourselves out of the hotel and go in search of adventure. I was eager to get at least a half day of  sightseeing in . We hired a driver and headed off to the ‘Bull Temple‘ a 500 year old temple built around  a giant bull carved out of a single rock…

 We saw several ox-carts on the busy roads

Tomorrow is the end of Ramzsan (Ramadan)

The cows have to eat soemwhere

We saw a large group of basket makers

The entracen of the Bull temple (Pooja.. if you’re reading this.. what does ‘Pooja vehicle’ mean ? )

You must take your shoes off before entering the temple

The temple front

Kids playing Cricket in the park

Hill top pavillian in the park

Another memorial

Not sure what this is.. but it was wierd

What a strange order !

The guys at the temple had cultivated hot peppers and lemon grass.

We each got a bindi

The bull statue.. it’a huge !

A different side of the temple

A guy to watch your shoes

Sound advice

Made us feel at home !

Manual assembly of scafolding

Lots of cultures here

It was surrounded by an extensive garden.. as we walked through it we looked up and found huge bats ! They must have been 3-4 feet across ! They looked  like the ones I’d seen in Sydney.

From there we drove to the Summer Palace of Sultan Tipu.. It was about 220 years old.. It had some  cool stuff  in there/ One story is that the sultan had been defeated in battle by a certain British Colonel. When he found out that the Colonel  had been killed by a tiger, he commissioned a musical toy that showed a tiger mauling an English officer. When you turn the crank it plays tiger sounds and the hapless officer lamely waves his arms.  They also had some of the Sultan’s 200 year old rockets. Evidently they were accurate to over a mile.

A temple adacent to the Sultan’s palace

After the Tipu palace we stopped at a shrine to Shiva that was fairly near our hotel . It was the most amazing thing I’ve seen yet. They had these huge statues of  Shiva and Ganesh.. The place was packed with worshipers. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen !

Aftr that it was back to the hotel.. a quick dinner. Tonight’s theme was tex.mex.. pretty funny to have that here..

Fogging the bar for ‘skeeters

Gabe and I then went swimming in the pool for about 45minutes.

That was great (we took my green laser pointer with us in a plastic bag and took it in the pool.. that was very cool.

Now we’re sitting and watching Pirates of the Caribbean together.. It doesn’t get better than that.. Tomorrow morning we head to Kerala..   We had to start taking out anti-malarial meds today.. fun-fun.  

Cheers !

OK more from the coast. !…

Talk to you tomorrow everyone.. you too Sam.

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 Ps. here’s some clips from last night’s dance entertainemtn. Thse folks were amazing !

Zzzzzzzzzz . I already fell asleep twice before I realized I hadn’t blogged this evening. We’ve transferred hotel as my week shifts from my IBM meeting to the Vendor meeting tomorrow. Right now we’re in the Leela Palace.. and it IS a palace. I’ve never been In a more opulent hotel.. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to our room from reception. It’s a perfect setting for a spy movie.. Gabe says it’s a   place to film a movie about Clue.. there’s a library. A conservatory.. Where’s the lead pipe ?

 Changing hotels was a full day job for  Diane and Gabe.. I worked at my IBM meeting until 4:30 then hired a car to the new hotel.. The IBM meeting was really fu ad really hard.. Lots of passion, lots of ideas.. and lots more to do (!). I love the people I was working with.. so that’s ok..
 
When I got to the new hotel Diane and Gabe we’re already in a room.. but it had two small beds.. not enough for three big folks like us.. Don’t get the wrong idea.. the room was palatial !.. It had everything including a remote control operated set of blinds between the bathroom and the bedroom.. I went of to a grown-up dinner with some friends fro the company that’s sponsoring this event.. When I came back.. they’d moved us into a different room.. Also very nice .. but we’ve traded the electronic Venetian blonds for a balcony overlooking Bangalore.. Not a bad trade..

 I don’t have more than 3 minutes of wakefulness.. so I’m just going to give some pictures from the day.. and fall asleep.. I hope in that order.

A sampling of Indian TV

G’nite all.. g’nite Sam..

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