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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Hanging  out in on our hotel room at 10PM waiting for dinner.. fish and chips, cauliflower  curry and some spinach thingy. We opted for room service because we couldn’t face the Bangalore traffic again.. It’s a nice room.. so it’ actually a nice way to spend the evening.   Last night we went to a fancy southern Indian place in the hotel with my friend Mohan and his friend Raj.. It was good meal served on banana leaves.  Gabe joined us for a while and demonstrated his musical skills before heading to the room for a TV fix…

Raj and Mohan

Dosa.. Yum !

My attempt at an Indain flag in chutney on a pratha

Our banana leaf plates

They gave Diane flowers to wear in her hair.. they smelled so great !

Oops.. This was breakfast yesterday.. also dosa

Pan for desert..It’s beetle nut, slaked lime, tobacko, cardamon, cloves and silver foil  wrapped in a beetle nut. It’s a stimulant..   and tastes .. uh.. interesting

Once again, Gabe has the TV clicker in hand and is taking us on a a tour of really goofy music videos and commercials in Hindi.. They are truly hilarious.. We’re also picking up hort clips f movies.  If you’ve never seen a ‘Bollywood’ movie you should !. They make every story into a musical .. murder mysteries, love stories, spy move.. I love watching them…  Here’s a quick sample  (oops.. can’t upload it.. I’ll try it later)

     Once again.. I don’t have much to show for my day.. it was 8am until 7:30 of brainstorming in a hotel conference room.  I was beat by the end of the day… and we have another full day tomorrow !

Diane and Gabe had a pretty layed back day, too… . Gabe slept in until 12:30 !.. ftter he woke up they shuffled down to the pool, played games and had lunch.   They then called up Joseph the driver and they went out to the market again. It turned out that today was some sort f holiday do the museums they had though about seeing were closed. They went  to an inside mall and parked in the underground lot.. As they drove in the attendant slid this thing under the car to check for bombs.. nice…   Diane said that they were amazed to find out how many folks were hanging out in service roles.. a person to press the elevator button. 3 people to point to where your car should park, one to open each door. There are so many people that there are people for every job. The mall was packed because of the holiday.   They went a couple of more markets.. for example they went to a silk store.. Diane and Gabe were instantly mobbed by a gaggle of earnest sales people who did not know the meaning of ‘no’.  They both said it was pretty cool.. but exhausting.. every time they turned to leave the sales people were spreading out more stuff in front of them..   Gabe says ‘it was crazy’.   It took 30 -45 minutes to drive back in the crazy traffic. Diane says she feels very safe being driven around.. even with the noise and crazy lane changes.. no one is in a hurry.. no one is mad. They use their horns every few seconds to let folks know they’re coming.. It’s chaos but friendly chaos.

She also observed how much everyone loves their kids here.   Here are some pictures from their day

Diane and Joseph

On the streets

Cow on the road

lunch !

A brick from Vermont ?

Yes.. they have it here

Our hotel

OK.. got to get back to the night in the room. We’ve been exploring our surroundings. Diane just found a copy of the Bhagva Gita in the room and some cool aruvedic aromatherapy lotion for your pillows. This place is full of nice surprise. Ok s time to logout and watch a movie…    (right now we’re watching skooby doo  with Hindi intro songs… )  OK.. Nite for now.. Nite Sam

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