Trip Wrap Up

Well, we are back in the states. I put Kathy on a bus from O'Hare to Madison about 6pm last evening and assume she made it home safe. My bus arrived in Racine about 8:15pm and Erica picked me up at the bus stop. Both Kathy and I arrived home with colds, but that is nobody's fault. I expect Kathy caught hers because she was run down from her intestinal problems. I caught mine about 5 days later, so we might well have been exposed at the same time. The others on the planes were probably cussing us out for spreading our germs around, but we really didn't have a choice.

The trip was wonderful. I can't imagine having a better six week vacation. I really don't know how to end the blog, so here are just a few reflections on high points (and low points) of the trip.

Favorite Experiences:
- sitting on a rock with Dinesh eating dinner and listening to the sounds of a small village rise up to us, as we discussed the phases of the moon and life.
- Kathy playing with Satya and Triveni's kids.
- seeing elephants and other wildlife at the Rajiv Gandhi Game Park
- all the outdoor activities, including hiking to the top of several hills/mountains, visiting the bird sanctuary, visiting the Hyderabad zoo, parasailing, dolphin watching, Ajanta and Elura caves, etc.
- the food. Sorry Tim: we never posted anything about this is particular. The food was amazing. The spices warm you all the way through.

Favorite Sounds:
- listening to the call to prayer from the minurets at 5 or 6am in Jaipur.
- while at Ajanta caves, a group of buddhist monks, probably from Thailand entered on cave and started chanting. It was incredibly beautiful

Least Favorite Sound:
- the constant beeping of horns in Delhi

Biggest Packing Mistake:
- not taking my own laptop. Any American going to India should pack one. There is wireless in every hotel and it would have saved us the trouble of repeatedly looking for Internet cafes

Things I Still don't Understand:
- how to use a mobile phone. I can now at least make a call and receive a call, however. :-)
- cricket. Actually, I have watched enough of the Austrailian test match, that I think I am beginning to get it, but I still can't figure out some of the basics, like, since there are always two batters, which one does the bowler throw to.

What I recall 20 years from now:
- the outstanding Indian hospitality. Everywhere we went people were gracious hosts, even when we were boorish Americans. Satya and Thriveni, Dinesh and his sister, and the schools we visited all made us feel very comfortable and at home. They fed us (and fed us and fed us) very well. Special thanks to Prof. Wagh and IndSearch, in particular, who did a very nice job of taking care of us while Kathy had intestinal problems.

India was wonderful, but six weeks of travelling is enough for now. I slept in my own bed last night, and it was good.

Stu

A few reflections from Kathy

As Stu said, we may not have another chance to blog before we return home. I would like to share a few reflections.

One of the travel books I read before we left said India was a country of contrasts and that the country can assault a visitor's senses. That is so true. There are so many people and so much noise. There are so many women and girls in vibrant colored sarees. There are so many smells and so much garbage and litter. There are so many elaborately hand-painted trucks. There are so many trucks, rickshaws, bicycles and people carrying loads twice their capacity. There are so many food vendors and markets and hawkers selling everything imaginable. So many cell phones.

Railway station platforms are crowded with people sitting and sleeping everywhere. Buses are loaded with luggage and people hanging out of the doors and on the roofs. There are advertisements painted on every surface. Power outages are very common. Oh, and did I mention there are so many people?

Everywhere we go, there are young men or women stopping to talk to us, or wanting to shake our hand or have their photo taken with us. The Indian people we have had the pleasure of meeting have treated us royally. They are very proud of their country and hard working. I have thoroughly enjoyed my visit to India, but I also look forward to seeing my family and friends when we return at the end of the week. Sincerely, Kathy.

Dautalabad Fort and Ellora Caves

Today we visited Dautalbad Fort and Ellora Caves. The fort is really well preserved. It was originally constructed almost a thousand years ago, but numerous dynasties have added to it. It has 7 walls around it and contains a very nice minaret from the Moghul period.

We also visited Ellora Caves. The 34 monolithic caves (carved by hand out of one solid piece of rock) were done by three different religions, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. Each set of caves is quite different in their art and style. Cave number 16 is the largest monolithic structure in the world. It contains an entire Hindu temple. Again, the photos don't quite capture it all.

This may be my last post before returning to the states, as we leave to Delhi on Wednesday and fly to the states Thursday night. I'll definitely post a wrap up when I get home.

Ajanta Caves

Two days ago we made the move to Aurangabad from Pune. We made our arrangements through a travel agent and we are definitely going upscale for our last few days in India. We are staying at a Lemon Tree Hotel that has a huge pool, workout room, etc.

Yesterday we visited Ajanta caves. It is a very impressive collections of more than 30 caves carved by Buddhist monks between the first century AD and the seventh century AD. Surprisingly, they were lost for about the next thousand years, even to the local Indians. They were rediscovered by some British tiger hunters in the 1800s. They contain some amazing statues and paintings. We had the privilege of being in one temple when a group of touring Buddhist monks sang a mantra. The photos don't really capture the extend or detail of the caves. They are way cool and one of the highlights of our trip so far.

Cross Cultural Experiences

There are always little things that strike one as, "Wow, we are in a different world." Here are a few examples:
1. There are usually multiple gas station attendants for every pump. It reminds me of "Back to the Future".
2. I have two nice shots of elevator buttons. In the first, it is about impossible to figure out which button to push for up or down. In the second, the basement is labeled as floor -1, which was very pleasing to me as a computer scientist. I have wondered why we don't do that regularly for years. (It sure beats the system used in Molinaro Hall).
3. As I've stated in previous posts, Kathy has been ill. We have used room service repeatedly to get food for her. After about 3 calls for simple things like Sprite or dry toast I gave the bell hop a Rs 100 tip, his first tip. This is about the equivalent to $2.00. He asked me what the money was for.
4. Pizza Hut sells pizzas with Indian spices.
5. McDonalds has no beef on its menu.

Diwali - the Festival of Lights

We are entering the Diwali festival, with lots of decorations and festivities. It's a cross between Christmas and July 4th. They set off fire crackers ,decorate their houses, have lots of parties, exchange gifts, and eat too many goodies. The children make and decorate small models of castles outside their front doors.

Pune Tourism

We stuck around Pune a couple of extra days to let Kathy heal. She is doing well. I think her remaining symptoms are more related to the meds she took than the her original problem. We visited Shaniwar Wada, a combination fort and palace; the Osho Ashram where free love was preached back in the 60s and 70s; and Sinhagad Fort, which stands at 4300 feet and overlooks the valley Pune is in.

This posting has been updated to include more photos.

Tree Planting in Pune

IndSearch is building a brand new campus on the edge of Pune. It is a very nice new 5 story building that they will be holding classes in starting in January 2009. The new campus also includes a "Biodiversity Campus." They ask visiting "dignitaries" (Kathy and me) to plant trees there. We obliged. Along with us was an aerospace scientist who is part of the government in Delhi. He was instrumental in the current Indian space shot to the moon that lifted off this morning.

Jay Sounderpandian (the UW-Parkside colleague who started the UW-P/IndSearch relationship) also planted a tree here a couple of years back. It is pictured below.

Pune

We made the move to Pune yesterday. My meetings at IndSearch went very well today. Prof. Wagh, who met us in Mumbai, is eager to come to UW-Parkside as early as the Fall 2009 semester. Prof. Joshi will be in the states in late April/early May 2009 and hopes to have the MOU signed at that time.

Kathy is on the mend, but is a bit weak. We have decided to spend an extra day or two in Pune to help her regain her strength. There are plenty of local sites, if she gets the energy. It means we won't make it up to the desert, but that is okay. The folks at IndSearch told me it just means we will have to come back.

We are off to a tree planting ceremony at IndSearch's new campus in about an hour. I will post photos tonight or tomorrow.

Mumbai (Bombay)

We flew to Mumbai yesterday and were met by Prof. Wagh from IndSearch, one of the schools I am visiting while here. It continues to surprise me how the cultures of the various town differ. In Mumbai, people are quite business oriented, not wanting to waste a lot of time with chit-chat. They also obey the traffice signals, unlike New Delhi.

Our plan to tour Mumbai today was put on hold for a couple of reasons:
1. Kathy is not feeling too well. She seems to be on the mend already, but is in no shape to sit in a car or walk around palaces and musems.
2. There are some politcal protests going on downtown today, so it is a good time to avoid there.

We are in a nice hotel, so we will just sit here and wait out Kathy's illness.

Parasailing and Dolphin Chasing

The subject line says it all. These shots were taken while still visiting Goa.
Tomorrow a.m. we are off to Mumbai and then Pune.

Goa

After another long train ride, we are now in Goa. Sometime I should blog about Indian trains. They work well. Dinesh tells me, however, that we are not getting the real train experience since we are riding in sleeping cars with A/C. We should get a unreserved ticket sometime, but they look much like the trains in the Gandhi movie, very crowded and hot. I don't think I'm up for it for a long journey. For example our ride from Alleppey to Goa was about 18 hours.

People on the trains are very friendly. I think both Kathy and my biggest concern is that we will miss our stops. Nobody calls out the stops. The trains can run hours late. Towns have multiple names. Fortunately, the people in our berths are more than willing to help out. Although at 5:30 this morning it was a bit tough to find any of them awake.

Goa is a beach resort town. We are at a resort on the south end of town. The beach is nice.

Kerala Backwaters

First, I was able to get a 2Gig card for my camera, so I can now store thousands of pictures. I am going to be more selective about what I upload, as each picture takes about a minute for blogger to record, regardless of the speed of the connection. After I get home, I may try to upload more.

Our driver in Cochin kept telling us there was no hurry making our houseboat reservation in Alleppey. We thought we would be on a houseboat with 10 other people and they would all be waiting for us. Wrong! We were the only guests. We took a two day cruise through the Kerala backwaters with a crew of three waiting on us. It was pretty posh. We both went a little stir crazy, however, as there was no where to go. We could walk the 15 feet from our room to the deck and back, but that was about it.

Our first night out, we moored beside some folks "threshing" rice. I don't know if that is the right term. They were removing the stems, but the rice still needs more processing to remove the hulls. It reminded me a lot of Amish workers in the field, where they have a stationary machine and lots of people bringing rice to it and working with it. They let us help out a bit. Unfortunately, it was too dark to get any photos while it was being done, and we left before they started in the morning.